'Uncomfortable' Disneyland Trip Inspires Woman's Dramatic Weight Loss Transformation: 'I Cannot Keep Living This Way' (Exclusive)
Leah Hope weighed nearly 400 lbs. when her extra weight ruined a much-anticipated trip to Disneyland with her nephew
Courtesy Leah Hope (2)
Leah Hope lost 185 lbs.In March 2022, Leah Hope weighed close to 400 lbs. — until a trip to Disneyland made it clear that she needed to transform her life.
Rather than enjoying the day with her sister, brother-in-law and young nephew, the portrait photographer from Phoenix found herself isolated at a table, overwhelmed by the heat and debilitated by a severe migraine, a pain intensified by her weight.
"I have been overweight, morbidly obese for most of my life, and I was comfortable in my discomfort basically because it was all that I knew," Hope, 34, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "But in the past few years, I was getting a little bit more uncomfortable in my body."
Not being able to participate in the day with her nephew made her think hard about her choices.
"My nephew is my favorite person in the world, and being an aunt has been one of the greatest joys of my life," Hope tells PEOPLE. "He is a huge reason why I wanted to get healthier and be a better version of myself."
courtesy Leah Hope
Leah Hope with her family at Disneyland in 2022.That day at Disneyland she decided to make a change. "I realized I cannot keep living this way. I don't want to experience things like this. I don't want to miss out on things with my nephew. I want to be able to live a full life."
After the trip, Hope began incorporating gradual, sustainable changes into her day-to-day routine. She moved away from the extreme all-or-nothing approach she had tried before.
Her first goal was to eat at least one nutritious meal daily, starting with eggs. She also began an exercise routine and started walking for 10 minutes at a time, slowly increasing the duration of her walks.
“I started out very small so that it didn't feel overwhelming to me,” Hope says. “The ultimate goal was to change my life forever, not just change it for a season.”
For the first month, Hope documented everything she ate in a food journal. By the second month, she felt prepared to set specific targets, like achieving 8,000 steps daily.
Since embarking on this journey a year ago, Hope has lost 185 lbs. through calorie counting and movement. She says it has been an enlightening and empowering experience.
"I did not expect this to be so much of an emotional and mental journey, but it has been," Hope says. "I have grown so much more emotionally and mentally than I have physically. Conquering the mindset that I had for most of my life and retraining my thought process has definitely been the hardest part."
Hope has also been sharing her story on TikTok.
“I spent my whole life pretending my weight was not a thing,” Hope says. “I never talked about it or brought it up. And so it was very hard to decide to do the thing that I spent my whole life hiding [from], to make it the first thing that people are seeing and hearing.”
Hope tells PEOPLE that her choice to share her story was about inspiring others and showing them that weight loss without surgery is possible for some people. Her core message: "It's not about chasing a smaller body, but going after a bigger life."
Hope tells PEOPE that she attributes her enriched life to "feeling better, having fuller relationships, and broadening the realm of opportunities and possibilities."
"I don't want to be a before and after," Hope says. "That's not what I am interested in. I am interested in continuously growing and becoming a better and healthier version of myself for as long as I can. I will never be after. I will never be done."
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